Bookstore on the Bay (Paperback)

She’s 65 years old and ready to embrace the adventure of a lifetime!

When Isabel receives an invitation to a reunion from her childhood friends in Sapphire Bay, she hesitates. It's been a long time since they've been together in the small lakeside town where they met as teenagers. Now 65 years old and recently widowed, she's yearning for a fresh start. Deciding this could be the change she needs, Isabel tells her friends she'll be there.

After she arrives, she discovers the town's bookstore is up for sale and at risk of closing. With encouragement from her friends and Frank, a retired lawyer with a mysterious past, Isabel takes a leap of faith and purchases the store.

As Isabel and Frank grow closer, she discovers he's harboring dangerous secrets. When shadows from Frank's past catch up with him, Isabel finds herself caught in the crossfire, forcing them both to make impossible choices.

Bookstore on the Bay is the first book in Leeanna's A New Beginning series and can easily be read as a standalone. All of Leeanna’s series are linked. If you find a character you like, they could be in another novel!

Isabel picked up a cream-colored invitation sitting on her kitchen counter. Her friend Kathleen had organized a reunion to celebrate the first time four homesick teenagers had met at the Sapphire Bay summer camp.  

Isabel traced her fingers over the raised letters, remembering the feel of sun-warmed dock planks beneath teenage feet, the sound of laughter as they’d plotted their futures. Had it really been fifty years? 

“What do you think, James?” she asked the empty kitchen.

The silence that answered wasn’t as sharp as it had been two years ago, but it still ached. Her husband would have known exactly what to say, probably something practical about checking the car’s oil before the drive, followed by that gentle smile that always made everything seem possible.

The phone rang, startling her from her memories. Kathleen’s name flashed on the screen.

“Did you get the invitation?” Kathleen asked before Isabel could even say hello. 

“I did. It’s a great idea.”

Kathleen sighed. “I hear a ‘but’ coming in about now. I knew you’d be overthinking it.”

“I’m not overthinking,” Isabel told her. “I’m just—”

“Processing? Analyzing? Creating an extensive pro-con list?” The warmth in Kathleen’s voice took any sting from her words. “Isabel Stewart, you haven’t changed a bit since we were fifteen.”

“That’s not true. I have significantly more gray hair now.”

“Which looks incredible.” Kathleen paused, her voice softening. “How are you really doing, Izzy?”

The nickname transported Isabel back to that first summer, when four awkward teenage girls found each other during craft hour. Kathleen with her wild blonde hair and endless supply of optimism. Lynda, who spent every free moment rescuing injured birds and lost tadpoles. And Susan, already perfecting her grandmother’s secret cookie recipe that she swore would make her famous one day.

“I’m okay,” Isabel said, meaning it more than she had in months. “The house is too quiet sometimes, but I’m getting used to it.”

“You don’t have to be in the house alone. Come to Sapphire Bay. We’ll stuff ourselves with Susan’s baking experiments and help Lynda rescue whatever strays she finds. I’m renovating the old Morrison cottage before I move in. You can help me pick the paint colors.”

Isabel’s eyes widened. “When did you buy it?” Since they’d first seen the cottage as teenagers, it had inspired lots of dreams about what it would be like to live there. With its wrap-around veranda and incredible garden, the cottage was still the prettiest house Isabel had ever seen. 

“I bought it last month. I decided that life’s too short not to chase a few teenage dreams.”

Isabel looked through to the living room and saw James’ favorite armchair. He’d spent countless evenings in the worn leather chair, reading mystery novels and telling her she should write one someday. He’d always believed she had a book in her, even when she insisted her life as a high school librarian was adventure enough.

“The town’s changed since you were last here with James,” Kathleen continued, “but the important parts are the same. Flathead Lake still turns silver at sunset, and the bookstore still has that creaky third step and the best reading nook in Montana. Do you remember going there when we were teenagers? We’d hide between the bookshelves to escape the camp activities.”

Isabel nodded. “Mrs. Henderson never minded. She’d just bring us hot chocolate and tell us to keep our voices down.”

Kathleen chuckled. “She’s still doing the same thing. Someone told me she’s thinking of selling the bookstore. I know she’d love to see you before she retires.”

Mrs. Henderson and her bookstore were an important part of the small Montana town. “I’d like to see her, too.” Isabel looked at the invitation again. “Two weeks in Sapphire Bay is a long time. What would we do?”

“Whatever we want. We’re sixty-five, not dead.” Kathleen’s laugh rang through the phone. “We haven’t seen each other for so long. Besides, I need someone with actual taste to stop me from painting my cottage some hideous shade of purple.”

“You still haven’t learned from the purple hair incident?”

“Hey, that was temporary! Mostly.”

They laughed together, and for a moment Isabel could almost smell the pine-scented air of Sapphire Bay, feel the gentle rocking of the dock beneath her feet. “I’ll think about coming to see you.”

“Make sure you do. How many years has it been since you were last here?” Kathleen asked. 

Isabel remembered the bittersweet vacation. “Almost two years.”

“Well, there you go,” Kathleen told her. “Another visit is long overdue. If it makes any difference, Lynda and Susan have already booked their flights.”

Isabel smiled as Kathleen told her what else their friends had been doing. After they’d finished catching up, she ended the call and picked up the invitation. The late afternoon sun caught the edge of her engagement ring, sending a small rainbow dancing across the paper. “Okay, James,” she whispered. “Let’s see what kind of adventure Sapphire Bay has in store for me this time.”

Somewhere in the distance, a wind chime her husband had hung years ago tinkled softly in the breeze. She took it as a sign of approval.

It was time for a new chapter, and Sapphire Bay was calling Isabel home.